Apple TV sales continued their sad decline over the holidays

Apple TV hasn't been the winner that Apple was hoping for. Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac

Remember when we all got excited about Apple TV and how it had the potential to change TV as we know it?

It seems that fewer and fewer people do. New data from eMarketer suggest Apple is currently “at the bottom of the U.S. connected TV market, behind Google Chromecast and Roku, with its share shrinking.”

As per eMarketer’s data, Apple is currently used by only 11.9 percent of connected TV consumers. That’s down from the 12.5 percent of users who were using Apple TV in September, the 12.6 percent who were using it in 2015, and the 13.5 percent in 2014.

On the other end of the spectrum, Google’s Chromecast rose from 18.4 percent in September to 19.9 percent over the holiday season. Both of these were up from the 16.2 percent Chromecast represented in 2015. Roku, meanwhile, made a big leap from 15.2 percent in September to 18.2 percent this quarter, according to the data analytics firm.

Given that Apple TV is considerably more expensive than both Roku and Chromecast, it’s quite possibly making more money than both, although there has been a decided lack of excitement around Apple TV.

It hasn’t become the game platform many of us were optimistic about, and most notably Apple has failed to deliver the subscription TV package that was rumored while Apple TV was in development.

Most tellingly, while Apple is reportedly planning to debut some Netflix-style original TV programming this year, those shows are apparently being made available as Apple Music add-ons, rather than as something designed to sell the Apple TV.

Recently, Apple has taken steps like increasing the size of tvOS apps from 200MB to 4GB. According to Apple, this decision allows developers to “provide a complete, rich user experience upon installation.”

Will small additions like this do enough, though? Right now it seems that something isn’t clicking about Apple’s TV strategy. What improvements would you like to see the company make? Leave your comments below.